Lucy Heartfilia and the Astronomy Tower
by AADale
Summary: Aspiring astronomer Lucy Heartfilia is taking her first steps toward her dream. But life can be complicated for a young witch at Hogwarts. Friendship and romance, magic and danger…it's going to be quite a year. Second of five years with Gray, Levy, and Lucy.


Aspiring astronomer Lucy Heartfilia is taking her first steps toward her dream. But life can be complicated for a young witch at Hogwarts. Friendship and romance, magic and danger…it's going to be quite a year. Second of five years with Gray, Levy, and Lucy. Read "Levy McGarden and the Savage Stairwell" first!

/

Fairy Tail!

Lucy Heartfilia had gotten to know the members of the guild, at least a little bit, over her first year at Hogwarts. They'd even spent Christmas together. But this was her first summer with them. She spent two weeks back at her father's house, then came to live at the guild hall – well, former guild hall. Fairy Tail wasn't technically a guild any more. They'd been disbanded when Master Makarov agreed to teach at Hogwarts. Lucy wasn't sure if she should think of herself as the last member of the guild or the first – whatever she was. But they treated her like family.

And they _were_ a family, a big crazy family with amazing people coming and going all the time. Lucy got to meet the older members when they passed through. She said goodbye to Laxus and Gajeel as they headed off to become dragon trainers. Natsu wanted to join them. He picked a fight with them for old times' sake, and held up surprisingly well as the three young men throttled each other enthusiastically.

Lucy made notes about the remaining Fairy Tailers at Hogwarts. She dreamed of writing one day, and found it a good tool to help her remember all the traits and quirks of her new sort-of family.

 _Alzack and Bisca are entering their seventh-year. They'll turn 18 this year. They're sure to be married soon after. Alzack is quiet and thoughtful. Bisca is quiet but confident and strong. They were more lovey-dovey when they were at Hogwarts and missed each other. They complement each other really well._

 _Elfman is a great guy once you get to know him. At first, though, he seems big, loud, and comes off as not too bright. But he's caring, a real gentleman, and he loves his sisters and the guild so much. He was supposed to be a seventh-year student this fall, but after he took his OWLs, they decided he should be a sixth-year again. (The Hogwarts system is really regimented. The training at Fairy Tail, and my home schooling, didn't prepare us for all the rules and tests.)_

 _Cana is going to be a sixth-year. She just scored Outstandings in Divination and Arithmancy. She's great. She's exotic. She's worn a bikini top all summer. There are a lot of things about her that I wish I could become._

 _Erza is entering her fifth-year. She wants to be an Auror. She_ _ **will**_ _be one. She'll be the best Auror ever, because she's set her mind to it. I don't think I've ever seen her smile, but sometimes she's content, and it feels really good to see her like that._

 _Gray is the most handsome guy in Fairy Tail. He has a beautiful chest, lean but also strong. If he wore a shirt and combed his hair he'd only be above-average, but his hair is always messy and even Cana covers her chest more than Gray. I think Gray and Levy would make a great couple. The three of us spent so much time together last year that I hope I'm not in the way._

Lucy looked at the words she'd written, then picked up her wand and burned the page. She wasn't going to leave something like that lying around.

And what about the others? If she'd gotten that far, what would she have written about the rest of the young members of the guild? Natsu was a maniac, just about the most genuine person in the world. Levy was at least Lucy's best friend, maybe even a sister. Lisanna was as genuine as Natsu, now that she thought about it, but Lucy had trouble understanding her. All the members of Fairy Tail but Lucy were orphans, and they all carried some damage from it. But Lisanna was the most healthy person in the group. She had grown up knowing that she was loved unconditionally. Her brother and sister had provided her with something that none of the others had had; even Lucy hadn't had that feeling since her mother passed away. Wendy was a mystery. She was so polite, and so afraid of causing offense. But Wendy idolized Natsu, who couldn't have cared less about the impression he made. And Happy was simply Happy, Natsu's companion, foil, and cheering section.

A knock at the door startled Lucy out of her reverie. Actually, what she found most startling was that someone at the guild hall had knocked before barging into her room. Lucy opened the door, and was immediately swept up in an enormous hug.

"Uncle Jura!"

"Princess!"

He hugged the air out of her, much to her delight. "Uncle" Jura Neekis was no more her uncle than Lucy was a princess, but she thought of him as family. He was a longtime family friend – or, rather, a friend of her mother. He looked the same as always: tall, bald, inordinately strong, attired in his traditional Japanese robe and sandals.

"What are you doing here?" she asked, as soon as the hug broke enough for her to breathe.

"I had to visit Master Makarov on business, and I thought I'd surprise you, and stay here through the weekend."

"I didn't know that you even knew Master Makarov."

"Oh, sure, I know the SENILE OLD MAN", he shouted, and Makarov cussed at him from another room in reply.

"I thought you were in Mexico."

"I was. A long job. More than two years down there. The last time I saw you was…well, you know I haven't been around much. I was working a contract job for the government. It's a serious earthquake zone down there, and there was a fault line that was about to split open. Thousands of people could have died. I had to shift the crust slowly or the whole thing would have broken open."

"Are you done now?"

"Oh, the main fault is secure. There's still some more work to do, but I trained this Japanese-Mexican kid I met down there, named Chad. Hardly ever spoke, but really strong. Enough about me; how are you doing?"

"I'm doing great."

"How's Hogwarts?"

"It's fun. I'm in Ravenclaw house, which is supposed to be the smartest one, and I'm going to be starting my fourth-year in a month from now."

"Fourth! Already! What are your favorite classes?"

"Well, Charms is fun. The head of Ravenclaw teaches it. And Master Makarov teaches Defense Against the Dark Arts, which is a real challenge. This fall I'm going to be taking Astronomy."

"Oh, great!"

"I'm really looking forward to it. I wanted to take it last year, but my schedule was too full I guess. The professor wouldn't give me permission. Now I've only got four years left at Hogwarts, and I want to be able to take my NEWT in it, so that's going to be tough."

"Well, your mother taught you a lot, so you should be able to catch up quickly, right?"

"I don't know. A lot depends on which level class the teacher lets me take."

"And how's the rest of it going? Are you making friends?"

"I've got Levy and Gray, they're both Fairy Tail, and they're both in Ravenclaw. Everyone else is fine. Except there are these boys who hate me."

"I doubt that's true."

Lucy demeanor changed. She paused, then said, "Uncle Jura, if my father did bad things, would you tell me about it?"

"Where did that come from?"

"These kids at school, they've said that he was a war profiteer and a thief, and worked with the Death Eaters, things like that."

Jura replied thoughtfully. "Your father is an honest businessman. He's made some decisions that I wouldn't have made. He's a tough man - you know we don't always see eye to eye. But he's never cheated anyone. It wouldn't even occur to him to do that. He sees an opportunity, and he takes it, but he's never dishonest.

"It's not easy to be a businessman. Taking money from people is hard, even if you know you're doing something good for them. I took money from Mexico. Could they have used that money for something else? Sure. But I did my job for them, and I had expenses, and it was fair. It was what we agreed to. It's tough to do that.

"And you know, I was so busy in Mexico that I didn't even realize how bad things had gotten here. There was this crew down there, a dark guild, and I shut them down, but I never thought to come up and fight the Death Eaters. I figured that Voldemort had fallen before, he wasn't that much of a threat. I had no idea how close this all came to collapsing.

"Your father realized how bad this all was headed. Even with everything he was going through, losing your mother, and you know how hard that was for him, his first priority was you. That's why you didn't go to Hogwarts at first. I told him that you should have been there right from your eleventh birthday, but he said that it was too dangerous. And he was right. I'm so grateful that you weren't there when the war broke out. That's the main reason you were home schooled. And even later, he was going to send you to Fairy Tail because he knew that some of the people at Hogwarts might give you a hard time. That's why that STUPID LITTLE MADMAN", he shouted – and they could hear Makarov curse in response – "was going to take care of your schooling before he SOLD OUT HIS GUILD."

"And my father never stole anything magical?"

"Sure he did." Jura smiled. "He took the most amazing magical treasure away from us wizards. And now he's given us a wonderful treasure in return."

/

The first half of the summer had raced by. Lucy spent two weeks at her father's house, and then Uncle Jura visited not long afterwards, and the whole time, Levy was working with Professor Gammell. Lucy was genuinely happy for her friend. Lucy thought of herself as an avid reader, but Levy positively _lived_ for words. The study of runes and ancient languages was, for Levy, what astronomy was for Lucy. She spent six weeks working with one of the world's top runologists. Gammell was excited about every tome he'd never seen before. They uncovered some hidden gems in that library.

In those few weeks, Levy grew. Gammell went from being, as Gray put it, her "book crush", to a person she could relate to. She was not his equal, but she could think of herself as a fellow wizard and devotee of writing. He _listened_ to her. Lucy wondered about the mysterious Astronomy professor Aurora Sinistra, and whether she'd be a mentor for her like Gammell was becoming for Levy. Gammell gave her a reading list to get her up to speed for Runes II in the fall, and as soon as he left she devoured it.

Lucy found it adorable to see Gray vaguely bothered that someone else was taking up Levy's time. Then she realized that she was acting the same way. It was _her_ summer with Fairy Tail, and she wanted Levy around more.


End file.
